Strange Situation and Questions

I had a strange occurrence recently and would like the forum's input and advice.

The vehicle involved is a 2012 GMC pickup truck with a small pop-up camper in the bed. The lighting on the vehicle is 100% stock as delivered from the factory. The camper has external LED floodlights installed, one on each side and two on the rear. I use these when setting up camp or to light the campsite on occasion. The switches for these lights are inside the camper, they are completely independent of the vehicle's lighting system.

With that in mind, here is the weird situation. Recently, I was traveling through Arizona in this vehicle and stopped at a roadside dinner. There were a number of law enforcement vehicles in the parking lot as well, both county sheriff and highway patrol. As I was getting in my truck to leave, one of the officers (I think it was a sheriff's deputy) pointed at the left side floodlight and said I needed to have those lights covered when I was on public roads. I was surprised by this, but didn't want to argue so I just claimed ignorance and said I'd take care of it. He then got in his car and left.

So, two questions...

1. Is it in fact required in Arizona (or any other state) to have side facing lights covered when on the road? What about the rear facing lights?

2. If it was a requirement to cover the lights, would it have been acceptable to cover them with blue painter's tape which I had in the truck?

Personally, I think he was just yanking my chain because he could see my California license plate, but maybe it's an Arizona law.

Thanks for your help.

I would consider them work lights. I am not aware of anywhere requiring work lights too be covered. Not impossible tho

I think he was either misinformed or yeah, yanking your chain...unless he gets in the face of every trucker with work lights on their truck, which is many/most of them. I just spot-checked Arizona Revised Statutes Title 28, Sections 922-949 (the entirety of AZ's vehicle lighting equipment and usage code) and the only mention of lamps that must be covered is in reference to red/blue lights on non-emergency vehicles.

-Virgil- said:

I think he was either misinformed or yeah, yanking your chain...unless he gets in the face of every trucker with work lights on their truck, which is many/most of them. I just spot-checked Arizona Revised Statutes Title 28, Sections 922-949 (the entirety of AZ's vehicle lighting equipment and usage code) and the only mention of lamps that must be covered is in reference to red/blue lights on non-emergency vehicles.

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Yeah - work lights. I hadn't thought of them that way, but that's exactly what they are.

So, do you think blue painter's tape is an acceptable way to cover lights if I ever needed to?

PJorgen said:

Yeah - work lights. I hadn't thought of them that way, but that's exactly what they are.

So, do you think blue painter's tape is an acceptable way to cover lights if I ever needed to?

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black "gaffa tape" (nashua 357 or the permacel equivalent) will likely work if needed.
the blue painters tape may cause you to have issues with the "blue lights on non emergency vehicles" part of the law.

We need to remember cops arent lawyers.

They arent actually all that well versed in law. All they can do is accuse you of something. If you ever take anything too court it is up too them too prove whatever you were doing is wrong.

Sadden said:

We need to remember cops arent lawyers.

They arent actually all that well versed in law. All they can do is accuse you of something. If you ever take anything too court it is up too them too prove whatever you were doing is wrong.

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I've run into this issue repeatedly in PA. I carry the vehicle lighting (and after my last set of tickets) and bumper codes from bith the commonwealth and federal codes. The headlight codes didn't hekp much, however, when the last officer I dealt with decided that neither my headlights or winch bumper were compliant with pa code. Despite the fact that they are. The magistrate didnt care either, so I ended up losing a day of work to appeal the tickets through the county clerks office.

PJorgen said:

The switches for these lights are inside the camper, they are completely independent of the vehicle's lighting system.

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You can't even operate them from the cabin. They're white. They don't flash (unless someone sat back there flashing them. Such fun!).

He's definitely misinformed.

I wouldn't use blue painter's tape because that would be like having a blue diffusing lens on the lamps-- you'd then have to cover them with something else.

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate them.

Hadn't considered that the blue tape could look like emergency lights, will definitely not use that should the need ever arise. My wife bought some leopard-print duct tape, that should work.

PJorgen said:

Hadn't considered that the blue tape could look like emergency lights, will definitely not use that should the need ever arise. My wife bought some leopard-print duct tape, that should work.

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Using the blue tape just isn't worth the risk. You already faced 'enforcement' of a law you weren't breaking. Imagine if the blue tape *had* been on them.

There's some newer low-residue duct tape (from Duck®) that seems to work as advertised; I use it to fasten a 20" square filter to a 20" box fan as a cheap HEPA filter. Seems it does peel off the filter pretty easily.

Arizona is the state that originated the newer state motto ,that many states now subscribe to "Arrive on Vacation ,Leave on Probation" .